Actually Never

I don’t like David Byrne. On a personal level, I mean. He wronged me personally. I got front row seats for his American Utopia show in Saskatoon, only for the date to be cancelled in favour of a second show in Minneapolis instead. Eternal grudge held.

But then Mark told me that the Stop Making Sense 40th anniversary remaster was coming to the IMAX, and I’d never seen it, and Jeff had never seen it, so away we went. I was just going to be kinda surly about it.

In fairness, it’s worth noting that even though our show got cancelled and I got my money refunded, I still got my free American Utopia CD that came with the ticket purchase. So that’s something.

What I knew

A handful of Talking Heads songs – Burning Down the House, Once in a Lifetime, Psycho Killer. The reputation of being the best concert movie ever. Big suit!

What I know

Hahahaha omg this ruled.

Beforehand, I wondered if I’d get the full enjoyment without knowing that many songs going in, which is dumb. I have been to a concert. I should know how this works. Not that more familiarity would have hurt anything, but I dug this regardless. Talking Heads? A good band. Just FYI there.

Apart from the music itself, there was clearly a ton of thought that went into how to present and film this. And so much energy. I was more worn out from watching this than the band appeared to be from playing it.

Our IMAX just got a new laser projector and the picture was great. Sound, also great. Most importantly, they’ve greatly improved their popcorn. Success all around.

We also had a bit of a happy accident. Jeff bought the tickets and meant to get second row from the back, but wound up getting second row from the front instead. I don’t know if I’d recommend this for a movie movie – but maybe? Being so close to a giant screen meant that your field of vision was filled at all times. Intense! But I think it added to the experience.

This blog format may lend itself to a lot of “hey, in case you were wondering, that thing that you and everybody else knows and loves is good. Just wanted to add my seal of approval to validate the commonly-held beliefs of millions.” But really, this is what I want this blog to be, me enjoying the heck out of things that I could have been enjoying for years. Although it sounds kind of sad when I put it like that.

Goddamn it, I’m going to have to watch American Utopia now, aren’t I.